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Pompeo says China issuing inaccurate information on coronavirus

Coronavirus responses put world powers at odds; Rich Edson reports.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that a member of the State Department has died after being infected with coronavirus.

Pompeo made the announcement as he was lamenting the toll COVID-19 has had both in the U.S. and abroad, and offered sympathies for those who have been affected.

POMPEO WARNS EVERY COUNTRY MUST 'STEP UP AND PROVIDE ACCURATE, TRANSPARENT INFORMATION' ABOUT CORONAVIRUS

“I see it every day. Every morning I get up and I read the data set from across the world, not only the tragedies taking place here,” Pompeo told reporters at a press briefing. “We’ve had a State Department official pass away as a result of this virus, one of our team members.”

He did not identify the individual.

Pompeo noted that 3,000 Americans have now been killed by the pandemic.

“My prayers go out to every American and every American family who have been impacted by this,” he said.

The secretary also emphasized the importance of having reliable information about the outbreak coming from countries around the world, as China has faced accusations of providing false data.

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“This data set matters. The ability to trust the data you’re getting so that your scientists, doctors, experts at the World Health Organization and all across the world who are trying to figure out how to remediate this, how to find therapies, how to find – identify a solution which will ultimately be a vaccine, to determine whether the actions that we’re taking -- the social distancing, all the things that we’re doing, limiting transportation, all those things -- figure out if they’re working so that we can save lives, depends on the ability to have confidence in the information about what has actually transpired,” he said.

“This is the reason disinformation is dangerous,” Pompeo added. “It’s not because it’s bad politics it’s because it puts lives at risk if we don’t have confidence in the information that’s coming from every country.”

Pompeo has been critical of China in particular, saying last week, that China was releasing inaccurate information about the outbreak.

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Earlier this month, Pompeo warned of the potential consequences of China's failure to be transparent.

"They haven't been sufficiently transparent and the risk you find [is] if we don't get this right, if we don't get to the bottom of this, is this could be something that is repeatable," Pompeo told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "Maybe not in this form, maybe not in this way, but transparency matters."